Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, set out his
stall on Friday for the British Airways and Iberia group.

He's promising a six-fold jump in operating profit to €1.5bn (£1.3bn) by 2015 and is obviously confident his track record for cost saving can help deliver much of that improvement.

Walsh, and every other airline chief executive, faces waning consumer confidence, sluggish economic growth and high fuel prices so an ability to slash costs and keep them slashed could be the difference between those airlines that survive this period of uncertainty and those that don't. In contrast to Walsh's forecast of higher profits to come, rivals such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have been cutting profit forecasts.

Consumating the merger with Iberia was good timing as it gives Walsh plenty of opportunity to improve and reshape the enlarged group to help the two brands weather the storm.

Walsh is now in the midst of adding Bmi, with its valuable Heathrow landing slots, to the IAG hangar, a deal that will give it the chance to add new destinations at its hub airport and a more flexible network.

He's also got his revenue-sharing agreement with American Airlines to add to his collection and for the first time the company has put a figure on the gain it expects from that arrangement - a useful €150m uplift by 2015.

But why stop there? Portugal's cash-strapped government looks set to sell TAP, an obvious fit alongside Iberia, giving Walsh important routes between Europe and the fast-growing Brazilian market, too.

So Walsh is clearly confident of making his idea of an integrated group of different airline brands work from both an operational and a financial point of view. The progress he's made so far suggests, however strong the headwinds, IAG is less likely than others to be blown off course.